When you rent a car, you’ll typically be asked if you want to prepay for the entire fuel tank, so that you can return it empty. If you look online, conventional wisdom is that this is a bad deal at best, and a scam at worst. I wanted to talk about that in a bit more detail in this post, because I actually have a (slightly) different take…
The argument against prepaid gas on rental cars
Major rental car companies typically give you the option of prepaying your entire fuel tank at the time that you rent your car. There’s a posted price per gallon (or liter), and it’s almost always a good price. Generally speaking, it’s competitive with what you’d find at the pump, and in many cases, it’s even priced lower.
The reason this doesn’t represent a good deal in most situations is obvious — while you might get an attractive price by prepaying the entire tank, it’s unlikely that most people are going to actually return the car with a nearly empty tank. After all, that takes effort, and a bit of math. So from the perspective of the rental car company, the business model is that you’re paying for the entire tank, but you’re not actually using the entire tank, and there’s a margin there.
I totally get the argument against prepaying for the tank, and I get why in online discussion forums, the consensus is that this doesn’t represent a good deal.
Why I sometimes prepay for rental car gas
Call it a hot take, but I wanted to share why I do sometimes end up prepaying for fuel on rental cars, and find it to represent a good value. I’m not going to claim that it saves me money, or that it’s something that everyone should do. However, under some circumstances, I do find it to be worthwhile:
- I’ll only do it if I’m going to be driving a lot on a trip, and I know I’ll at least get close to using one tank of gas (or even more)
- I value the convenience of not having to get gas before returning the car; travel can be stressful enough when you’re returning your rental car, especially if you’re traveling with family, and you don’t want to add a gas station stop to the itinerary
- While it depends on where you are, often gas stations near airports have especially high pricing, so it can take some effort to find a gas station with good pricing
- I’ll always see how the gas prices offered by the rental car company compare to what would otherwise be the average gas price in the area, and this can be done with this handy AAA tool, which lets you search average gas costs by state
- I find it’s easiest to do the math on how much fuel you’ll need if you’re traveling roundtrip, since you can eyeball how much gas you’ll need for the return based on how much you used on the way out
Let me give an example, as I flew into Montana yesterday. At the rental car counter I could prepay my tank for $3.19 per gallon, compared to the average cost of $3.42 in the state, so the price is actually a bit lower.
I know I’ll be driving more than a tank of gas on this trip. Even if I were to return the car with a few gallons of gas, using this would cost me less than $10. Honestly, I value convenience at that, as not having to stop at a gas station near the airport will save me time, and it’s one less thing to worry about. Furthermore, the gas station near the airport charged more than the state average for gas.
Now, I am a bit of a maximizer, so you can bet I’ll do everything I can to do a reverse “Price is Right” style math, and return the car as close to empty as possible, without going under. 😉 So if I play my cards right, I might save a buck, but really I figure I’ll just breakeven, and I value the time savings there. It’s not for everyone, but as someone who likes a math game, I do get a bit of a kick out of this.
Bottom line
When rental car companies let you prepay for a tank of gas, I don’t consider it to always be a bad idea. Yes, the hope is that you pay for the entire tank and bring it back with quite a bit of gas. But if you’re driving a long distance, decent at math, and value the convenience of not having to stop at the gas station prior to returning to the airport, I actually don’t think it’s the worst option in the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t use this with every rental, but I’m definitely less opposed to this than most others.
What’s your take on prepaying for fuel on rental cars? Do you ever consider it to be worthwhile?
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